Criminal law usually treats compensation as an epilogue — something considered, if at all, at sentencing. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 takes a different view. Section 33(8) empowers the Special Court to direct compensation for the child's physical or mental trauma or for immediate rehabilitation, and Rule 9 of the POCSO Rules, 2020 builds a working machinery: interim compensation during the trial, special relief for immediate needs disbursed within days, and final compensation assessed on structured criteria — payable regardless of whether the accused is ultimately convicted. This explainer sets out that machinery as it operates in Delhi.
The statutory foundation
Section 33(8) of the POCSO Act empowers the Special Court, in appropriate cases and in addition to punishment, to direct payment of compensation to the child for physical or mental trauma or for immediate rehabilitation. The provision deliberately decouples the child's needs from the accused's fate: the direction is addressed to the State machinery, funded through the victim compensation framework, rather than dependent on the accused's solvency. Rule 9 of the POCSO Rules, 2020 then supplies the operating detail — who may apply, when, on what criteria, and within what timelines payment must follow.
Three layers of support
The criteria Special Courts apply
Rule 9 directs attention to the circumstances that actually measure harm and need. In practice, applications and orders in Delhi address the following matrix:
- the gravity of the offence and the severity of physical and mental harm or injury suffered by the child;
- expenditure incurred or likely to be incurred on medical treatment, including psychiatric and psychological care;
- loss of educational opportunity or of employment prospects in the household, including absence from school and relocation;
- whether the offence occurred over time — repeated assaults aggravate both trauma and entitlement;
- pregnancy, disease or disability consequent upon the offence, and any resulting child;
- the financial condition of the child's family, bearing on rehabilitation capacity.
Procedure in the Special Court
Practice note: Compensation applications succeed on documentation, not adjectives. From the first week of a case, the child's side should preserve medical and counselling records, school attendance impact, and receipts for treatment and relocation expenses. Where the family's finances collapse because a breadwinner is the accused — a painfully common POCSO reality — that fact belongs squarely in the application, since rehabilitation of the child is the scheme's stated object.
Interaction with other compensation regimes
The POCSO machinery operates alongside the general victim compensation framework under Section 396 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023 (formerly Section 357A CrPC) and the State's victim compensation scheme administered through legal services authorities. The Special Court's directions draw on that fund architecture, and the quantum ranges of the applicable scheme inform, without capping, the POCSO assessment — the Rules make the child's need, not a schedule entry, the touchstone. Amounts received as interim relief or special relief are adjusted so that layers supplement rather than duplicate one another. Compensation against the convicted accused personally under the BNSS sentencing framework remains additionally available where the accused has means.
The takeaway
The POCSO compensation scheme embodies a simple institutional promise: the child's recovery cannot wait for, and does not depend on, the conviction of anyone. For counsel representing victims, the scheme rewards early, documented, specific applications — special relief in the first days, interim compensation during trial, and a fully evidenced final claim. For the system, timely compensation is not charity; it is what makes the child's continued participation in a long trial humanly possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can compensation be awarded before the trial ends?
Yes. Rule 9 permits the Special Court, on its own or on application, to pass an order for interim compensation to meet the immediate needs of the child for relief or rehabilitation. Interim compensation is adjusted against the final award and does not await any finding of guilt.
What is "special relief" under the 2020 Rules?
Special relief is an immediate-needs payment — for food, clothes, transport and other essential requirements — which the Child Welfare Committee can recommend and which is to be disbursed within a week. It exists because even interim compensation through the Special Court can take time a child in crisis does not have.
Does an acquittal extinguish the child's right to compensation?
No. Compensation under the POCSO scheme is welfare-oriented: the Special Court may award it in appropriate cases even where the accused is acquitted or untraced, because the child's trauma and rehabilitation needs are facts independent of the criminal outcome. The award is paid from the victim compensation fund maintained by the State.
Who actually pays, and how?
Awards are disbursed through the Delhi State Legal Services Authority from the victim compensation fund, ordinarily within a stipulated period of the order, into a bank account arrangement protecting the minor — commonly fixed deposits with an accessible component for ongoing needs, managed with the guardian under the court's directions.